ArmInfo. The application of MTS Armenia CJSC (Viva-MTS brand, a subsidiary operator of the Russian MTS PJSC) to complete a transaction for the sale of company shares may be rejected. This is stated in the draft decision of the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) of the Republic of Armenia, which will be considered on January 17.
Thus, according to the application, the Russian "Mobile TeleSystems" OJSC , which is the actual controlling shareholder of the Armenian "MTS-Armenia" company, applied to the PSRC with a request to acquire 100% of the shares of "MTS Armenia" from Aramayo Investments Limited registered in Cyprus (part of the <MTS-Armenia> chain of shareholders).
That is, the Russian MTS essentially wanted to gain direct control over MTS-Armenia, without intermediaries.
The Public Services Regulatory Commission intends to reject the application. The draft decision notes that the Ministry of High-Technology Industry, which had not previously objected to the deal, opposed it on the grounds that it had already agreed to approve an application for the sale of shares in MTS Armenia as part of another application, as well as "based on state interests."
We are talking about giving consent to the purchase of shares of MTS-Armenia by the Cypriot Fedilco Group Limited in November last year. It was noted that after the conclusion of the transaction, MTS Armenia will cease to be a member of the MTS Group- Mobile TeleSystems PJSC ("MTS")l, the leading telecommunications group in Russia. The transaction must be closed within six months from the date of publication of the final decision.
Meanwhile, earlier, in April, PSRC rejected the application of the same company, citing the fact that it could harm the state interests and security of Armenia.
The "MTS Armenia" telecommunications company (trademark VivaCell-MTS, entered the Armenian telecommunications market in 2005) maintains leadership among Armenian telecommunications operators in the list of largest taxpayers. According to the State Revenue Committee of the Republic of Armenia, for January-September 2023, MTS Armenia paid 12.6 billion drams to the state treasury, of which 4.3 billion drams in direct taxes (including profit tax, income tax), and 5.2 billion drams - in VAT. The company dropped from 5th to 12th place over the year in the list of 1000 large taxpayers.
